F1: Lando Norris on pole in Austin with Verstappen alongside, Hamilton finishes 19th

McLaren’s Lando Norris hailed the best qualifying lap of his career after beating Red Bull rival and Formula One leader Max Verstappen to pole position at the U.S. Grand Prix on Saturday.

Verstappen, 54 points clear of Norris in the standings after winning the earlier sprint at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas, might have gone faster but George Russell crashed his Mercedes in the dying seconds and forced everyone to ease off.

Russell was unhurt and climbed out of the car.

Norris had set a storming provisional pole time of one minute 32.330 seconds with his first flying lap, and Verstappen was 0.031 slower.

Red Bull’s triple world champion looked quicker on his second run, but Russell’s accident in the final sector brought out double yellow warning flags.

The pole was Norris’s career sixth, as well as fourth in the last five races and first in the United States, and he was delighted.

“It just came together perfectly. It was a very, very good lap. I’d probably say quite comfortably the best of my career,” said the 24-year-old.

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“It’s what we needed to do. We have been on the back foot pretty much the whole weekend. We haven’t had the pace of the Ferraris or Red Bulls. So I had to do something and today I did that. A cool lap and a nice way to start the race tomorrow.”

Team boss Andrea Stella agreed it was “pretty much perfect”.

Verstappen won in Austin last year and his sprint victory ended an eight-race losing run dating back to Austria in June, since when Norris has whittled away at the lead.

“On the first lap in Q3 (the final phase), I lost quite a bit of time,” said the Dutch driver. “I knew we had another run but unfortunately I couldn’t finish the lap. Otherwise, I think we had a really good shot.”

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who finished second in the sprint with Norris third, and teammate Charles Leclerc filled the second row.

“We’ve done a good step in the right direction. I was three-tenths up on my lap going into Turn 16 with only two corners left, but easy to say now,” said the Spaniard.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Russell will share the third row and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso qualified seventh and eighth.

Gasly was summoned to stewards after the session for an unsafe release from the garage.

Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, still struggling for form, completed the top 10.

Mercedes’ seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, the most successful F1 driver of all time, provided a major early shock by qualifying 19th.

“In the sprint, we had some sort of failure from the formation lap on the front suspension. I had that throughout the sprint race. That made the balance really difficult,” said Hamilton.

“The car was a nightmare in qualifying. I should probably start in the pit lane, otherwise I won’t be going anywhere from where I am.”

Russell, who had qualified second on Friday for the sprint, said his car had taken him by surprise going into the penultimate corner.

“Maybe I was over-pushing but pretty disappointed by the damage caused to the car and all the work that will have to go on tonight,” he said. “Yesterday Lewis and I were both in the fight for pole, and today we were nowhere.”

New Zealander Liam Lawson was third-fastest in the opening phase, but the RB driver will be starting last due to a grid penalty inherited from predecessor Daniel Ricciardo.